One of the big stories about Marvel Studios over the last few months is how much they’ve changed their television strategy. The decision to move away from six-episode miniseries that were, more or less, extended movies was a smart one. It was also a wise choice to keep the television side of things separate from the movies.Ironheart, a belated release that completed filming nearly three years ago, is a solid reminder of why the studio was right to do this.
Ironhearthas some good things to offer fans and casual viewers, such as a solid central performance and some well-executed action scenes. Still, it’s held back by a writing model that never properly served Marvel’s characters or stories all that well. It feels simultaneously too long and too rushed, it’s a mess of ideas and themes that never seem to properly coalesce, and it culminates in a finale that seems almost entirely disconnected from the rest of the show.
After her supporting role inBlack Panther: Wakanda Forever, Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) finds herself back at MIT, but only briefly. Her thriving business of selling technologically advanced projects to other students lands her in trouble, resulting in her expulsion from the school. In a last act of rebellion, Riri steals her completed suit and heads home to Chicago.
Right away, there’s a sense thatIronheartwants to focus on Riri’s position in the wider Marvel universe, especially in comparison to Tony Stark. Riri is a young, Black woman with humble origins, who longs to build, in her words, something “iconic.” Contrasted with Stark, who was essentially born on third base and given all the resources in the world to become the inventor he did, Riri becomes even more interesting. The potential for showing how these two characters took different paths in life toward the same goal was there, butIronheartnever fully embraces this theme. It’s possible thatIronheart’s creative team didn’t wantthe shadow of Tony Stark looming too largeover their own story, but it’s hard to avoid considering the shared DNA.
That’s not to say thatIronheartisn’t doing things differently. The show does what the MCU hasn’t really dared to try, which is blending the magic side of its universe with the technological one. The former comes in the form ofAnthony Ramos’s Parker Robbins, aka The Hood. The hastily introduced villain (seriously, the show just kind of cuts to him without a proper introduction or entrance) and his band of criminal outcasts steal from the ultrawealthy in order to enrich themselves. As far as criminal motivations go, it’s not the deepest, but there is an underlying sense of evil involved with Parker’s hood, something otherworldly that seems to be seeping into his very being.
Ramos is a decent performer, but here he unfortunately joinsthe ranks of forgettable Marvel villains. Parker’s motivations never seem to move beyond milking cash from selfish billionaires, and his connection to the hood and its subsequent corruption never seems to carry any stakes. The rest of his crew is made up of some good performers (including Manny Montana, Shea Couleé, and Zoe Terakes) who ultimately never get to shine on their own. With more than six episodes, this supporting cast might have been given more chances to shine, but the original weakness of these Marvel shows has reared its ugly head again: there just isn’t enough time to do what traditional TV series can do, leaving many characters feeling underdeveloped.
That’s especially true ofAlden Ehrenreich’s character, Joe. Joe is a tech ethicist whom Riri seeks out for help with her suit, although there’s a lot more to his character that is revealed later. Ehrenreich is fun to watch playing against type as an awkward nerd, but his inclusion feels so superficial that it’s easy to imagine removing his entire part from the series and having everything still work pretty much the same. If anything, a reveal about his character that comes about halfway throughIronheartsuggests that he should have had far more to do or say, but it ultimately never adds up to much. Like other shows before it,Ironheartmostly just exists for its finale, which is likely to please some hardcore fans.
Joe’s role as a tech ethicist also highlights one of the biggest problems withIronheart, which is its thematic confusion. It’s never really clear what the show is actually about or what it wants to say with its story. One minute it’s focused on Riri’s individual journey and the questionable choices she has to make to succeed as compared to Tony Stark, the next it’s questioning the ethics behind Riri accidentally reviving her dead friendNatalie as her suit’s artificial intelligence, a story thread that is also about grieving and how the memory of someone is preserved. Throw in some very late themes about temptation and what a person might sacrifice to get what they want, and it all just feels far too jumbled to mean anything.
Ironheartmostly gets by on its stylistic flair, including the musical cues and Chicago exteriors (the rest of the show was, naturally, shot in Georgia). It’s a good-looking show when it wants to be, and the effects are mostly pretty solid. Any shots with Riri’s suit are well-done, likely owing to the presence of a practical suit on set. Larger environments however, including a technologically advanced underground tunnel system start to look a bit dodgy.
Ironheartis the last of its kind, and it raises some questions about where the character goes from here. The final scene seems to suggest that there will be more to Riri’s story, but how will it be told?As Marvel shifts its television strategyfrom these six-episode miniseries that are essentially given movie-level budgets, is there still room for something likeIronheart? Will Riri return to the movie side of things? It’s hard to tell, and ultimatelyIronheartdoesn’t set anything up that can’t be brushed aside for the time being. It’s a show that flies on its own, but never quite soars.
